16 GALILEO GALILEI. 



ing Bodies," which aroused violent opposition; 

 " Spots observed on the Body of the Sun," and the 

 " Discourse on the Tides." 



Four years later, he was again in Rome to plead 

 for the Copernican system, and to defend his own 

 conduct in advocating a thing in opposition to the 

 Catholic church. He said : " I am inclined to 

 think that the authority of Holy Scripture is 

 intended to convince men of those truths which 

 are necessary for their salvation, and which, being 

 far above man's understanding, cannot be made 

 credible by any learning, or any other means than 

 revelation by the Holy Spirit. But that the same 

 God, who has endowed us with senses, reason, and 

 understanding, does not permit us to use them, 

 and desires to acquaint us in any other way with 

 such knowledge as we are in a position to acquire 

 for ourselves by means of those faculties, that, it 

 seems to me, I am not bound to believe, especially 

 concerning those sciences about which the Holy 

 Scriptures contain only small fragments and vary- 

 ing conclusions; and this is precisely the case 

 with astronomy, of which there is so little that the 

 planets are not even all enumerated." 



However, in spite of Galileo's logic, the church 

 decreed that all books which stated the Copernican 

 system as true should be prohibited ; as a mathe- 

 matical hypothesis, it might be speculated upon. 

 This was a great disappointment to Galileo, who 

 loved and revered the Roman Catholic faith. He 

 went home to the Villa Segni, at Bellosguardo, 



